A unique blog dedicated to covering the worlds of book publishing and the news media, revealing creative ideas, practical strategies, interesting stories, and provocative opinions. Along the way, discover savvy but entertaining insights on book marketing, public relations, branding, and advertising from a veteran of two decades in the industry of book publishing publicity and marketing.

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Saturday, December 19, 2015

Read All About Book Publishing Scandals

An
article in the newspaper a few months ago presented an outrageous claim by a
troubled former Major League Baseball player, Lenny Dykstra. He said that he used to blackmail umpires
into giving him favorable calls. To be
clear, Dykstra has said a lot of wild things – and done them too. He’s served
time in prison and seen his life fall apart.
When he played he was hard-nosed, exciting, and very animated. He was on
the 1986 World Champion New York Mets and lived up to his nickname, Nails. Since the time this story was published I have
not seen any follow-ups by the news media that either confirmed or denied the
veracity of this heavy allegation. But
it left me feeling two things: First, it could be true. Second, it could be happening in the book
publishing world.

I‘m
sure there are scandals galore that have not been revealed to the public as it
relates to blackmailed book reviewers, sexually manipulated acquisitions
editors, or even bribed book chain buyers.
Why should any of this be beyond the reach of these people? They’re humans and humans are flawed in all
kinds of ways. No one is perfect and the
ethics of anyone in power can be strained.

Now,
I have no actual knowledge that any writer ever slept his or her way into
getting published. Nor do I have any
proof that a buyer from Barnes & Noble took a large order for a book
because he or she was personally paid off.
Nor can I say with any proof that a book reviewer at Publishers Weekly
or a book editor at The New York Times was ever blackmailed by a publisher,
literary agent or author to select a book for favorable media coverage. But
such stuff could happen – and likely did.

Why
would the book publishing industry be any different than:

·Cheating
politicians

·Blackmailed
CEOs

·Steroid-taking
athletes

·Judges
ruling without disclosing a conflict of interest

·A
red-light-running cab

·Someone
selling drugs, guns, or stolen property illegally

We
already know writers commit hoaxes, plagiarism, and other atrocities. Why not a
good sex scandal or case of bribery?
They can be quite imaginative and mentally off-balanced, as a group, and
could easily pull this off.

So
how would such indiscretions take place?
Would they happen naturally, or would they be planned out?

Let’s
start with a male acquisitions editor at a leading publishing house. He’s married with kids but is bored by a wife who is bored with him. He’s in no
rush to get home to tend to a household of obligations. He meets a lot of people and comes across a
young, attractive woman who bypasses literary agents and submits a query to
him. He’s curious and googles the
author. He sees she is quite pretty and looks like fun. He uses her query
against her and allows it to be his pimp.
He contacts her and tells her to send more of the manuscript. He reads it and believes deep down it’s not
great but could be good enough – if he had the right incentive. He decides he
deserves a payday as a gatekeeper. A relationship
develops. The book is published. They broke up once the ink on the publishing
contract dried.

He
used his position to sleep with her and pushed through a book that otherwise
would not have been published. She was
no innocent, either. She thought she was
manipulating him to green-light her sub-par work. They deserved each other.

In
other cases it may not have been so subtle or mutually beneficial. There could
be cases of real crimes taking place: cover-ups, pay-offs, and all types of
sinister dealings. Maybe I imagine too much.
Maybe I’m too cynical. Perhaps I’m just
a realist.

If
Dykstra believes he compromised an umpire’s judgment because he threatened to
go public with some secret life an umpire was living, then it can and probably
will happen in the book industry.

It
would explain a lot of things, including:

·How
lousy books get published

·Why
mediocre books get glowing reviews

·How
incompetent people occupy important positions at a publishing house

Spies
from other countries sleep with each other.
Competitors conspire against the unknowing public. Wall street trades on inside knowledge. The Mafia fixes athletic contests and court
cases. Casinos manipulate their
games. The world lives on lies,
corruption and cheating.

People
switch allegiances and loyalties out of greed, ego and desire. It happens every day, everywhere. It could be happening in book publishing.

About Me

Brian Feinblum, the creator and author of BookMarketingBuzzBlog, is the chief marketing officer for the nation's largest book promotions firm, Media Connect (www.Media-Connect.com), formerly Planned Television Arts, and has been involved in book publicity and marketing since 1989. He has served several book publishing companies as a publicist, book editor, and acquisitions editor. Brian, who earned a BA in English from Brooklyn College, became a published author in 1995 when he penned The Florida Homeowner, Condo and Co-Op Handbook. He resides in Westchester, New York with his wife, two young children, and an English Bulldog.